I masterminded the plot to blow up Lord Mountbatten: Ex-IRA commander sensationally confesses to being behind the assassination of King Charles’s beloved great-uncle who was murdered aged 79 during a holiday at his summer home in Ireland

A ruthless ex-IRA commander sensationally confessed to The Mail on Sunday that he was behind the murder of King Charles’ beloved great-uncle.

In an astonishing confession that would cause Charles immense pain, Michael Hayes callously boasted that he had designed the explosive that killed Lord Mountbatten, and that he was the mastermind behind the atrocity.

Lord Mountbatten – a mentor to both Prince Philip and the then Prince Charles – was murdered aged 79 when the IRA blew up his pleasure boat in August while on holiday at his summer home in Co Sligo, on the west coast of the Republic of Ireland. 1979.

Only one member of the IRA was ever convicted of the atrocity. Thomas McMahon was arrested on the day of the blast and jailed for life, but was later released under the Good Friday Agreement.

But now, after being approached by an MoS reporter, Hayes has boasted: ‘I blew up Earl Mountbatten.’

In addition to the earl, killed were his grandson Nicholas, 14; Doreen Brabourne, 83, Nicholas’ grandmother; and crew member Paul Maxwell, 15, from Enniskillen.

Legal experts told the MoS this weekend that Hayes’ confession made him liable to prosecution for the murders if Irish police and the Director of Public Prosecutions decided to pursue him.

Hayes said he had no regrets about killing Lord Mountbatten and coolly described the two teenage boys who died as “victims of war”.

When Buckingham Palace declined to comment last night, Ian Paisley Jr, Democratic Unionist Party MP for North Antrim in Ulster, called on the Garda Síochána, the police force in the Republic of Ireland, to investigate Hayes ‘immediately’.

“The sensational, shocking and chilling statement of a self-confessed, cold-blooded murderer must be immediately investigated by the police and the man must be brought to justice,” he said.

The brutal murder of Lord Mountbatten, affectionately known as ‘Uncle Dickie’ by the royal family, deeply affected Charles. In his diary, the 31-year-old Prince of Wales wrote of ‘pain, disbelief, a kind of miserable numbness’. But in 2015, Charles showed forgiveness by shaking hands with Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams after traveling to Ireland to see where Mountbatten died.

Hayes, a grandfather who lives alone in Dublin, was previously named as one of four men behind the 1974 IRA bombings in Birmingham and has taken what he called “collective responsibility” for all the IRA’s actions in England.

But he has never before linked himself to the murder of Lord Mountbatten and the other victims who died when a 50-pound remote-controlled bomb tore through the hull of the Shadow V. Speaking to an MoS reporter, Hayes revealed that he was McMahon’s “commanding officer.” ‘. He said, ‘Tom McMahon, he was just a contestant. I’m an explosives expert, I’m famous. I was educated in Libya. I was trained there as an explosives expert.’

When asked if he meant he was the man who designed the bomb, he boasted: ‘Yes, I blew it up. McMahon put it on his boat… I planned everything, I’m commander in chief. ‘

An alleged IRA accomplice, Francis McGirl, was also arrested on the day of the attack, but he was later acquitted. He died in 1995 in a farming accident.

Hayes confirmed to the MoS that he was also in County Sligo at the time of the bombing, adding: ‘Francis McGirl made a huge deal of it. I blew up Earl Mountbatten in Sligo, but I had a justification: he had come to my country… Look at the famine… should we forget that? The Black and Tans? He came to my country and killed my people and I fought back. I hit them back.”

There is no bar to the prosecution of Troubles-era crimes and any immunity as part of the Good Friday Agreement will only apply to convictions for crimes prosecuted in court. A legal source said: ‘This person [Hayes] could reasonably be prosecuted…

Asked whether detectives would be investigating Hayes, a Garda spokesman said: ‘From public information, two individuals have been prosecuted in relation to the murder of Lord Mountbatten. One person was acquitted and a second person served a prison sentence and was subsequently released under the Good Friday Agreement.” But when asked if he feared persecution, Hayes said, “No, I fought a war, I was justified.” Asked if he regretted the explosion, he said: “Blow up Mount Batten? No.’

But when asked about the two boys who were killed that day, he replied, “Those kids shouldn’t have been on the boat in the first place.

Although he sickeningly called the young people ‘victims of war’, he admitted: ‘Yes, I think that’s a shame, that was not the intention. I am a father. I’m not made of stone. I got sick, I cried.”

Last night Mary Hornsey, 84, mother of young victim Paul Maxwell, said she would welcome a police investigation into Hayes’ claims “to see whether or not he was involved, whether he was really the commander who gave the order ‘.

She added: “I think we need justice, not revenge.” Speaking about the loss of her son, she explained: “It’s something that never goes away.”

Senior Tory MP Sir Iain Duncan Smith, who served in Northern Ireland with the Scots Guards, also urged the Garda to investigate Hayes’ claim, adding: ‘It is important to get to the truth. ‘